Chapter 26—First Lessons
Haldir allowed Estel some time at the beginning of each day to just play with his sword so that he would get accustomed to it more quickly. "The first and most important thing that you need to learn in handling a sword is being used to drawing it from the scabbard quickly without hurting yourself. And you need to name your blade. The name of a sword is used to strike fear and terror into the hearts of your enemies once it is widely known and revered as being wielded by a master. We will give you time to think about that."
"But back to my main point, for obvious reasons, we will begin with a practice sword. Put this in your scabbard and try to draw it." The elves always gave him a few tries of doing everything his own way before they would even offer help. They did this to see what the young human already knew or had observed about a particular technique.
Estel did as he was told, but was not paying attention to what he was doing and hit his hand on the wooden blade. "OW!" "That is why we are practicing with this sword, so that you will not permanently injure yourself or one of us. Now try it again, draw the blade a little more slowly this time."
Estel let his left hand hang down at his side, while his right held the sword hilt. The next time he tried, his right hand hit the scabbard and the sword fell to the ground. Embarrassed, he bent down and resheathed the sword. This time he held the scabbard steady with his left hand as he reached for the sword with his right. He was able to draw the sword with more control that time, but Haldir came up behind him and put his hand on Estel's to guide his movements.
"You did good in figuring out that you have to hold the scabbard when you draw the sword, and your technique is okay, but when you draw your sword you want to be able to fight with it as soon as the tip is unsheathed. This means you have to have a good balance with your hand on the sword hilt. Whenever you hold the scabbard steady with your left hand, make it an automatic movement to wrap your fingers tightly around the hilt. You keep the blade steady by lightly placing your thumb under the pommel."
While Haldir was talking, he was demonstrating all of this to Estel. "Loosen your fingers just a little bit, if they are too tight, your hand will be shattered with the force of the first blow. Good, now you try it by yourself," Haldir said this as he slowly backed away so that he would not be struck, though it was a "toy" sword, it would still hurt if he got hit with it.
A little while later, Estel was able to unsheathe his sword and take a quick downward stroke at an invisible opponent. "That is very good Estel. I think you may have already realized this, but as we get further and further into these lessons, they will begin to get harder. Now we will practice the art of putting the sword back into the scabbard."
"I know this may all seem simple to you, but these two things are the most important in sword-fighting because they are the two things that can cause you the most injury if done improperly. As with drawing the sword, you need to hold the scabbard steady, but instead of holding it so close to the opening, move your hand down just slightly so that when you resheathe the blade, you won't cut yourself."
Estel did as he was told, but did not have a good grip on the hilt and missed the scabbard completely, stabbing himself in the leg. "Keep trying. It really is not all that difficult, but once you get this we will add it to the first part. After you withdraw the blade and are ready to put it back in the scabbard, loosen your grip just a little bit and rotate your wrist so your hand is palm-down to the ground. This will help you keep better control of the sword."
After a few more practice tries, he was able to resheathe the sword. "Now we will go through the whole sequence again and then once you have that, we will start over and replace the wooden sword with your real blade. So put the sword back in your scabbard, withdraw it, make a few cuts, and then replace it."
Within a few hours, Estel had the whole sequence down with the wooden sword. Haldir could tell that he was getting tired because they had practiced all day, so he gave him the rest of the day off.
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The next morning, Estel was ready to start his "real" training with the steel sword.
Haldir warned him to take it slow, the last thing he needed was Gilrean having his hide because her son had gotten hurt during his training. There were a few times throughout the day that Haldir thought his heart was going to explode from the stress of seeing Estel hurt himself. All of the scraps were minor so they were no real cause for concern.
Haldir still wanted to take it slow, so he and Estel worked out a small system that they would only practice for a short while in the morning and then take a break until the next day. Everyday Estel got better and better at the arts of sheathing and unsheathing the sword.
This went on for several weeks. Haldir was also teaching him the arts of patience, persistence and perfection. The elves wanted to make sure that the young human had it "perfectly" before continuing on to harder tasks. They all knew that he would eventually leave the shelter of Imladris one day and he would need to know these things to survive on his own.
Eventually, Haldir felt that it was time to move on. And about this time, Rumil and Orophin finally returned from their hunts.